Chamber and committees

Unfortunately, we have technical gremlins, which I believe mean that our online witnesses cannot hear our discussion. I hope that we will be able to bring them into the discussion shortly. I apologise to them for that situation.

We move to questions from the committee, starting with Mr Cameron.

I will have to draw the meeting to a close. I thank all the witnesses for their attendance and for their briefings prior to this session. We now move into private session.

I will be attending and taking part in the interparliamentary forum that will be meeting on Friday, which has also raised concerns about these issues.

Good morning. I give a warm welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2022 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

Our first agenda item is to decide whether to take agenda item 3 in private. Are members content to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. I will open on those points about four-nations co-operation. We have heard today that there may well be some progress in Northern Ireland and we wait to see what happens there, but what discussions have you had with your Welsh counterparts about this? Are they on the same page as the Scottish Government in their opinion of the bill and its potential impact on devolved settlements in both areas?

That exhausts the committee’s questions this morning. I thank the cabinet secretary and his officials for their attendance. We will now move into private session.

Our second item is to take evidence on the legislative consent memorandum for the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. We have two evidence sessions on the LCM this morning. I welcome to the committee Dr Ruth Fox, director, Hansard Society; Sir Jonathan Jones KC, senior consultant, Linklaters LLP; and Dr Oliver Garner, research fellow, Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. I hope that we will be joined online by Professor Catherine Barnard, deputy director, UK in a Changing Europe. We might also be joined by our committee’s advisor Professor Katy Hayward for a short time.

I will ask the opening question. In our recent report, “The Impact of Brexit on Devolution”, the committee shared its view that

“the extent of UK Ministers’ new delegated powers in devolved areas amounts to a significant constitutional change.”

Given that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill does not confer any powers directly on Scottish ministers and that there would be no requirement to obtain consent from the Scottish Parliament or Scottish Government before the delegated powers proposed in the bill are exercised by United Kingdom ministers, what are your views on the impact that that could have on the way in which devolution operates and on the Scottish Parliament’s scrutiny roles in particular?

Professor Barnard has had to leave, because of connection issues.

I will bring in Professor Hayward now, who is our adviser—I did not realise that she was still with us, so my apologies to the deputy convener, as I said that she had left.

I am sorry, Professor Barnard, but your sound is breaking up at this end and we are not able to pick up enough of your contribution. I am very sorry but we are going to have to move on to a supplementary question from Alasdair Allan.